With Matthieu Pavon’s rookie win at Farmers Insurance, the Frenchman will be one to watch at the Olympics

At the beginning of the Farmer’s Insurance Open, rookie golfer Matthieu Pavon wasn’t really on anyone’s shortlist for potential winners. But perhaps he should have been. His world ranking stood at 228th just last fall. However, a Top 10 finish at the DP World standings last year secured his place on the PGA Tour. His win at the Acciona Open de España on the DP World Tour last October put his name on the map.

Now just three months later, the new PGA Tour pro is a PGA titlist, and the first for his country in a very long time.

Judging from the way he boldly birded the 72nd hole on Saturday at Torrey Pines in San Diego, he’s established himself as one of the contenders to watch this year.

Pavon will climb up the OWGR rankings as of Monday. He's also the first player from France to win on the PGA Tour since World War II.

With the Olympics occurring this summer in his home country, Pavon is pretty much assured of receiving a spot on the French Olympic team. I would be shocked if he didn’t.

"Yeah, that's big. Olympics is huge. Since I'm kid I'm watching it," Pavon said, via USA Today. "I have a good friend of mine, Julien Quesne, was my mentor and is still my mentor to be fair, he did that Olympics in Rio and told me how cool was it. Yeah, it's definitely one of my goals this year to qualify and represent my country in Paris. Looks like I'm on a pretty good shot right now."

Combined with his countrywoman, Celine Boutier, the French golf team would be hard to beat.

In his debut tournament on the PGA, Pavon placed T7 at the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this month.

Pavon’s play at Torrey Pines was even more thrilling. Starting out with a bogey on Saturday, the Frenchman impressed with his ability to bounce back by putting four birdies on the front nine to catch up with Stephan Jaeger, the frontrunner at the start of the day.

Mistakes plagued Jaeger as he approached the back nine, where he added three more bogeys to his one already accumulated on the seventh. The German golfer watched his lead evaporate while Pavon and Nicolai Højgaard displayed consistency heading into the final holes.

Højgaard’s birdie on the 14th put him in within striking distance. Perhaps the pressure of the Dane nipping at his heels got to Pavon, who bogeyed the crucial 17th hole.

Yet despite the misstep, Pavon put on the afterburners and steadied his nerves to putt the birdie of his life for the one-stroke win.

“I can’t thank the PGA Tour enough to give us the opportunity to come from Europe and compete here in America against the best players in the world,” Pavon said, according to golf.com. “That’s always been the dream for me. I got finally a shot and I took it.”

Heading into the summer games, Pavon will likely be on everyone’s golf radar considering his tremendous start on the PGA Tour.